December 2, 2008

1. She wanted his old job, but he'd be getting her old job. I love the narrative arc.

2. I love the idea of a former President going on to another government position -- instead of going about giving speeches or attempting to perform good deeds or playing the elder statesman role. Get back in there and do something.

3. It would be so entertaining having Bill in there mixing it up with the other Senators. Will his narcissism allow him to submit to it? Come on! Show us how your brilliant skills can transform the Senate.

4. It would be nice to have a Senator who you absolutely know isn't dreaming of becoming President.

I understand the entertainment value, but Bill Clinton has always been an executive and never had to work with a group. If he simply wanted to go to DC and hang out with cute staffers, then he could have a great time. If he actually wanted to do something then he is stuck at the back of the seniority pack without a committee chairmanship which would leave him to be noisy and have the media cover him.....opps, I just talked myself into this idea.

If Obama had more gravitas, he could have appointed Bill Secretary of State. Like him or not, he has eight hard years experience confronting foreign leaders. His wife has zero experience roughing it up with bad guys.

It would be so entertaining having Bill in there mixing it up with the other Senators. Will his narcissism allow him to submit to it? Come on! Show us how your brilliant skills can transform the Senate.

Rush would love it, America would love it and I would love it. Maybe we can give Bill a pistol so he can shoot himself in the leg like Plaxico Buress did.

I like the idea of Bill Clinton in the Senate, especially for his support of free trade and his foreign policy realism. More than any other Senator he will know the fog that Obama -- and his wife -- will have to navigate through.

I do find it hard to believe he'll be good at the constituency services part of the job. No Senator Pothole, he.

"2. I love the idea of a former President going on to another government position -- instead of going about giving speeches or attempting to perform good deeds or playing the elder statesman role. Get back in there and do something."

Just add, "and making hundreds of millions of dollars by influence peddling."

One of Larry Sabato's nuttier suggestions in his book of nutty Constitutional amendments was to give all former Presidents and Vice Presidents an automatic seat in the Senate. /shrug/ Listen, New York already has the slimiest, nastiest piece of work imaginable for a Senator in Chuck Schumer, so the only way is up.

Verso said..."Going to be fun seeing how your right wing fans react to the idea."

What is the downside of seeing Bill Clinton emasculated, reduced from the most powerful man in the world to the most junior member of one hundred in a chamber where Seniority is almost everything? I'm all for it.

Bill would be a great choice. His political skills are extraordinary. His views on free trade and welfare would make a good counterweight to Harry Reid's worst impulses. A Democrat governor is not going to appoint the next James Buckley to the Senate, so a relative moderate like Bill would be the best a Republican could hope for.

And if Alcee Hastings can be a Congressman, Bill Clinton can surely be a Senator. What's a little impeachment between friends?

He won't do it, he is all focused on his "legacy" and if he is not very effective in the Senate, that would tarnish his legacy and his record as President that he wants in the history books. Also, if he were on any of the committees dealing with foreign affairs, it would be a bit of a conflict for him to be overseeing our foreign policy with his wife at State.

Because we all know it was HE who was sexually harassed, not his subordinates. He lied to a grand jury about it only out of fear of what those subordinates might do to him. Mean evil power-hungry subordinates.

It violates a generally accepted norm against nepotism. Plus, you don't just go around handing out senator seats, especially to relatives. I know you're joking because I understand you to be too level-headed to welcome third-world practices just for your own entertainment.

I like Bill Clinton as a possible Senator. He would be an excellent, capable pick as a pro-economic growth Centrist.

Far better than the smarmy idiot Robert Kennedy Jr., possible living proof every time he opens his mouth of Ethel's dalliance with a retarded milkman....He has been a loser all his life. The only smart male kid of Bobby's, relatively speaking, was MichaelKennedy, who drilled a babysitter then went headfirst into a tree trying to catch a football. Which, I suppose, further points out how bad RFK Jr is...and his personality matches his coke-ravaged brain.

The Gov may not want to appoint a carpetbagger like Bubba, which would be resisted by State Dems, just like appointing another NYC Jew would be. And Clinton himself may like the "special envoy" thing more.

If I was to guess, Patterson might want an Upstater that could help his gubenatorial bid. Or a well-known white woman from Upstate or on Long Island.

Patterson would also be wise to consider Andrew Cuomo..a hyperambitous prick, but one who also delighted the masses with the skillful Italian vendetta of dragging a wayward Kennedy princess through the dirt in a beautiful public disgracing of her infidelity...

The only saving grace of having Bubba as the junior Senator would be that it would prevent Cuomo, who had a major hand it creating the mortgage crisis, and RFK Jr who is left of Che from getting the job.

Musical chairs for our ruling caste. Why even keep up the pretense that we're a republic any longer? As to the actual needs of actual New York Staters? Don't make me laugh, say our withit elites. It's all too too tres amusant.

That's the difference between Bill Clinton the adulterer and JFK the adulterer: Kennedy had the manners not to hit on the staff whereas for Clinton, hitting on underlings is what it's all about.

No, the difference is that the media had the manners not to report it when Kennedy hit on the staff. Ever hear about the two White House secretaries, "Fiddle" and "Faddle," one of them his and the other Pierre Salinger's? According to multiple sources, JFK liked to do both of them in the White House swimming pool.

In any case, the elevation of Bill Clinton would simply show future generations what a corrupt mess the Democrat party is.

Lie under oath, be impeached, have sex with an intern in the oval office, pardon Marc Rich for a payoff, and the Dems will *still* give you a Senate seat. Its like Tammany Hall for Yale law school grads.

If Bill is named Senator, I'd love to see the reactions of several people (some of them bloggers and commenters, a couple of them personal friends) who announced that they were voting for Barack Obama in the primaries "if only to help keep either Clinton from being in the news ever again."

Prof Althouse certainly has a better understanding of Con Law than I, a mere citizen, but there seems to be a way for Bubba to become president for a 3rd time, although probably most unlikely.

Assume that the VP office is vacated for whatever reason during Obama's presidency and that BHO appoints Bubba to the VP position. Further, assume BHO doesn't complete his term of office, then Bubba would become the 2nd person to have 3-terms as president. The 22nd amendment precludes someone from being elected more than twice to the presidency but not from holding that exalted office a third time.

Of course, conspiracy theorists would have a hay day with this scenario.